Operation Anthropoid

Operation Anthropoid was the codename for the assassination of SS-Obergruppenfuehrer and General der Polizei Reinhard Heydrich, who was the head of Nazi Germany's combined security services and the acting Protector of Bohemia and Moravia. The "Butcher of Prague" was one of the most powerful men in Germany and the man in charge of implementing the Holocaust, and he was also known for his harsh rule in occupied Czechoslovakia, immediately executing 5,000 Czechoslovak prisoners-of-war upon coming into office in September 1941. The Czechoslovak government-in-exile sought to confirm its legitimacy, so it worked with the government of the United Kingdom to come up with a plan to assassinate Heydrich.

From December 1941 to May 1942, the setup for Anthropoid was prepared. Czechoslovak parachutists Jozef Gabcik and Jan Kubis were parachuted into occupied Czechoslovakia in December 1941, and they linked up with the Jindra organization of Jan Zelenka-Hajsky. They were given sanctuary in the apartment of Marie Moravcova, who kept them there without the knowledge of her husband, Alois Moravec, who thought that they were looking for work. The two men recruited Lenka Fafkova and Marie Kovarnikova to act as their girlfriends to make them less conspicuous, and the two couples would later become actual lovers. With the help of the women and a former pupil of Zelenka-Hajsky who worked at Heydrich's castle, they were able to map out Heydrich's travel routine, and they decided to ambush him near the Bulovka Hospital in Prague 8-Liben. Gabcik was to fire at Heydrich and his driver with a Sten submachine gun, while Kubis was to throw a modified anti-tank grenade at the car to kill the two men. The assassins were assisted by fellow parachutists Adolf Opalka and Josef Bublik; as the car slowed down to take a left turn near the hospital, Opalka was to run in front of the car to force it to halt, upon which Gabcik would fire and Kubis would throw the grenade. The plan was repeatedly delayed by resistance leader Ladislav Vanek, who was afraid that the Nazis would carry out horrific reprisals against the people of Czechoslovakia, and that the country would be wiped off the map. The resistance fighters later discovered that Heydrich was supposed to leave for a new posting in Paris, France on 28 May 1942, so Gabcik and Kubis decided to kill him on 27 May, before it was too late. They received a coded message from the government-in-exile in London that told them that Anthropoid was of utmost importance, and they decided to finally execute it.

At 10:30 AM on 27 May 1942, Heydrich left his gubernatorial residence at the Lower Castle in Panenske Brezany, and Kubis, Gabcik, Opalka, and Bublik waited at the tight curve near the tram station. As Heydrich's Mercedes 320 Convertible B slowed down, Opalka ran in front of the car to delay the driver, and Gabcik ran up to the car with the Sten. However, the Sten jammed, and Heydrich's driver stood up with a pistol and attempted to shoot Gabcik. However, Kubis threw the anti-tank grenade at the car, and the explosion embedded shrapnel and fibers from the seat's upholstery in Heydrich's body upon detonation, even though the grenade failed to enter the car. Kubis was also injured by the grenade's explosion. After the explosion, Gabcik and Kubis fired potshots at the car with their Colt M1903 pistols, and Heydrich tried to chase Gabcik with his pistol, but he collapsed. Gabcik shot Klein in the leg with his pistol while fleeing through a butcher shop, and he escaped to a safehouse via tram. The two men thought that the attack had failed, not knowing that Heydrich had been mortally wounded; Karl Frank became acting Protector of Bohemia and Moravia, and Heydrich died of septicemia on 4 June 1942.

Heydrich's death was a major blow to Nazi Germany, and the Nazi Party leadership was shaken by his loss. A furious Adolf Hitler ordered for immediate reprisals to be carried out. Karl Frank and Hitler gave orders for the reprisals: any village that had harbored Heydrich's killers should be levelled entirely, all adult men should be executed, all women should be sent to a concentration camp, and all children suitable for Germanization should be placed in SS families in Nazi Germany. On 10 June 1942, the town of Lidice was razed, with all men over the age of 15 being executed in the barn; the women and children were deported to concentration camps, and a total of 340 people (including the 192 executed men) died as a result of the reprisal at Lidice. On 24 June, all of the adults in the village of Lezaky were shot in another reprisal.

The Anthropoid assassins found sanctuary at the Czech Orthodox Church of Saints Cyril and Methodius in Prague, where Bishop Goradz of Prague and Father Vladimir Petrek hid them, along with three other parachutists. The German government offered 1,000,000 Reichsmarks for any information on the whereabouts of the killers, and former Czechoslovak Resistance member Karel Curda, greedy and fearing for the life of his family, decided to tell the Germans about the Moravec family's assistance of the resistance members and about the resistance leadership. Marie Moravcova killed herself before she could be taken, and her husband and her son Ata Moravec were arrested. Ata was brutally tortured and shown his mother's severed head in a bucket before giving up the location of the parachutists. At the same time, Zelenka-Hajsky took cyanide after he heard German troops enter his apartment. On 18 June 1942, after a six-hour siege by 800 German SS troops, all seven of the Czechoslovak parachutists at the Cyril and Methodius Church were either killed or had committed suicide. The Czechoslovak Resistance was annihilated as a result of Heydrich's assassination, and they were posthumously regarded as national heroes for killing the "Butcher of Prague".